so i've noticed something about orufrey's body language
and i have been going insane about it ever since! kamome shirahama your attention to details will be the death of me /pos
hands are the most expressive non-verbal tool humans have, and since it's also quite literally the tool that gives the witches their magic, watching hands in witch hat atelier is beyond important. implied spoilers up to ch93 under cut! [don't mind the language of half the screenshots, that's beside the point]
qifrey so very often tends to clasp his hands together, rubbing them against each other or simply clinging to his long robes. a gesture so telling of just how uncomfortable due to silverwood he constantly is, always slightly nervous, always tip-toeing around the edge of a cliff.
and he's been doing so since childhood! his emotions are so closed-off when it comes to casual body language, which is both an indicator of his character and the ways in which he deals with his curse. unable to trust even his closest friend, he chooses the only vaguely soothing thing: to curl into himself, to detach, to distance.
meanwhile olruggio, despite his scruffiness, generally comes off as a more open, "simple" man, hands flying all over the place when he's agitated. he expresses his emotions freely, without restrain.
qifrey curls into a ball for comfort, meanwhile olly splays like a star, comfortable in his skin an in qifrey's presence
and what happens when they start to interact?
olly keeps reaching for qifrey, talking some sense into him with his hands, with spontaneous and emotional physical touch.
he does so even upon first meeting
he keeps and keeps reaching out to qifrey, both literally and symbolically.
no matter how hard qifrey tries to run away, to hide deeper into himself, olruggio will always be there to offer him a friendly hand or otherwise
this particular parallel is especially dear to me:
they changed so much,
but they also haven't changed at all
and the culmination of this dynamic in a single image for me is this:
qifrey, gaze averted, hands uncomfortably clasped together, fake smile on his face
and olruggio, calm and confident, leaning into qifrey's personal space with familiar ease, resting an arm on his shoulder in a friendly gesture.
everything that shirahama consistently portrays as the manga goes on and the history unravels, neatly and wordlessly shown in a single static image. the art of showing, but not telling, thus nurturing a deeper understanding of these characters. absolutely brilliant
something i just noticed because of a re-read (and the characters proximity), but looky here
both of them have this sort of "division" symbol in association with an "eye" (sasaran's actual eye, and iguin's mask). i dont know if this particular sign/sigil has been revealed elsewhere, but i thought it was interesting. perhaps iguin's eye mask is more than just decoration. (also im just now realizing the eye mask uses a bunch of circles in the design. perhaps that is also a seal of some kind? i think its possible there could also be a circle that functions as a sigil rather than an actual circle. meaning their mask could be a contraption of sorts)
anyway no clue what this means, but i thought it was an interesting detail wait hold on i just thought of smth as i typed this out.
one of sasaran's eyes is most likely the one on his hat. perhaps that seal on his face moves the location of the object it touches, thereby allowing sasaran to see from his cloak puppet.
on top of that, iguin refers to themself as the "eye of the world" and "the lidless one". perhaps their own eye (and im thinking it might be just be One for clone theory reasons) isn't actually contained within their body? not only would that allow them to view "the world" far beyond their body, an eye plucked from a face is, by its very nature, lidless.
EDIT: HOLY SHIT I FOUND SOMETHING ELSE LITERALLY RIGHT AFTER. LOOK AT EUINI'S ANTI-SCALEWOLF MEDALLION
COMPUTER. ENHANCE THAT BITCH
ITS ALMOST THE SAME FUCKING DESIGN, WITH A RING MISSING. WHAT THE FUCK DOES ANY OF THIS MEAN
(its not the forbidden tattoo design btw, its just the back of the medallion, not the spell itself but STILL. there is SOMETHING abt this design motif)
my dad thinks the concept of shipping is hilarious. my parents are cool, they know about my online presence, it's fine. dad doesn't scroll my blog or anything, though--he's usually too busy watching dubiously homoerotic pro wrestling clips or playing valheim--so his idea of shipping culture is bizarre
damn near every time I mention im working on a fic or piece of fanart, he gasps in hopeful anticipation and asks "tamatoa and heihei?!" and he always acts bitterly disappointed
no, dad. i'm not writing or drawing anything where a 50 foot crab and a literal chicken have any kind of relationship at all. you've been asking me to make this ship happen for almost nine years now and the answer has always been no. it's a running gag, of course, but--why would you even think of that?! what kind of shit do you think happens on ao3?!